Last year we had an extreme drought in the Spring-Tomball-Magnolia area which also of course affected Lake Conroe. We keep our sailboat at Lake Conroe which is about a 35 minute drive for us. We have a Catalina 22 with a retractable keel so keep it on dry land on the trailer.

As you can see from the pictures those people who were not so lucky to be able to trailer their boats had them sitting on dry land for most of the winter. Water was being taken out of Lake Conroe to flow in to Lake Houston and at one point the lake was 8 foot down. As sad as our lake looked it was built as a back up water supply for the city of Houston. Thank goodness the water was there for them.

These drought pictures were taken at what was supposed to be our last regatta for the season, Toys for Tots which always takes place the first Saturday in December; obviously we were not racing that day.

The owners of our yacht club told us that in the 1970's when the lake was being built they were told it would take three years to fill up and it filled up the first year. They were optimistic that the lake would feel up quick. I on the other hand was listening to the weatherman who said that we were going to be in a severe drought for the next 5 years and was not feeling so optimistic. We even thought about taking our boat down to Galveston bay but that would be an hour and half drive verses 35 minutes and with gas prices the way they are we just figured we would not be sailing this summer.

Spring forward just a few short months and look at what happened. We were at a St. Patricks day party at Conroe Yacht Club and lo and behold there was water. It appears God was in control not the weatherman; we had rain in all the right places. It has been an incredibly wet winter and our lake is now only down 2 feet. We have not taken our boat out yet but when we are ready we can. (The only reason we did not go out today is because there is no wind and there's no sailing without wind).